christopher price

Ousted at Notre Dame earlier this week, Charlie Weis likely won’t be out of football for long.

For the most part, over the years, Bill Belichick’s former assistants have been an extremely tight-knit group that has always gone out of its way to support one another. If one is fired, the rest of the group leaps to his defense.

That was the case on Tuesday when it came to Weis. First, Belichick issued a statement in support of his old offensive coordinator. Then, Denver coach Josh McDaniels — who worked under Weis as an assistant and became the offensive coordinator in New England shortly after Weis left for Notre Dame — came out in support of Weis.

“Well, I’m disappointed for Charlie, and his family and all the people they took out there with them,” Belichick said on a conference call with area reporters. “Of course, I go back a long way with Charlie and we have a good friendship. I talk to him on a pretty regular basis, so I’m disappointed for him on that level.”

“I know Charlie is a strong-willed person, and he’s going to land somewhere,” McDaniels told reporters. “He’s a really good football coach, that’s what I know.”

Weis, a Notre Dame alum rolled into South Bend in fine fashion after the Patriots 2004 season, a year where he was part of a coaching staff that won three Super Bowls in four years. In his first two seasons, the Irish played in two BCS bowl games, losing to Ohio State in the 2006 Fiesta Bowl and LSU in the 2007 Sugar Bowl.

Turns out, those seasons would be the high point of Weis’ tenure. Over his final three seasons, Notre Dame went just 16-21. He was fired on Monday.

Would Weis return to New England? Early reports from SI.com’s Peter King indicate that the Patriots, Chiefs and the Panthers — with the Colts as a “darkhorse” — are the front-runners to land his services in 2010, while ESPN.com has reported that Weis has heard from “roughly six NFL teams” about him possibly becoming their offensive coordinator next season.

Belichick wouldn’t touch on that on Tuesday.

“There are going to be situations like that — there have been every year — where things happen on other teams and on other coaching staffs or player rumors and so forth,” he said. “Anything along that nature is something that would be addressed at a later point in time. It’s not anything that is on the front burner at all.”

Despite Belichick’s reticence to discuss the idea, a return to Foxboro for Weis — who has also worked as the running backs, tight ends and receivers coach, all at various times with the Patriots — certainly isn’t a ludicrous one, for a few reasons:

•New England is currently operating without an offensive coordinator. According to players, quarterbacks coach Bill O’Brien is the one calling the majority of plays right now, but it appears to be a collective effort — some players say that Belichick has called some offensive plays this season, while director of player personnel Nick Caserio has also been in the booth with the coaches during games as well. And then, there are simply times where quarterback Tom Brady takes things into his own hands, as he did on a four-yard touchdown pass to Randy Moss in a recent win over the Jets. A singular voice — especially one like Weis with the knowledge of Brady and the rest of the Patriots — might be the sort of thing that could clear up any questions about the offense.

•Brady and Weis are extremely close. The quarterback essentially came of age under the guidance of Weis, who has three Super Bowl rings from his time working with Brady. Few coaches know him better, and fewer still know how to maximize his talents as well as Weis does. In addition, Belichick and Weis remain close, having worked together on and off for a good portion of the last 20 years.

•Weis doesn’t necessarily have to come back as an offensive coordinator. The idea of an assistant returning to work is fairly common when it comes to the Belichick/Bill Parcells coaching tree. Fired as a head coach following the 1995 season by the Browns — and with a background as Parcells’ former defensive coordinator — Belichick joined the New England staff as the assistant head coach/secondary coach under Parcells for the 1996 season, and served in the same capacity for three seasons following that with Parcells and the Jets before bolting for New England’s head coaching job.

Weis’ former boss, Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick, believes Weis could wind up back in the NFL.

“He’ll add some Super Bowl rings to the ones he already has as a successful coordinator in the NFL, and we will miss him,” Swarbrick said Monday.

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